Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 357 Yantai ([-])

On May 1643, 5, under the leadership of Captain Li Yi, three ships including the repaired and maintained "Polang" arrived in the coastal waters of Jeju Island, Jeongui County.Mo Ming, who got the news, immediately ordered people to open the city gate, and then drove the Korean civilians in the city to start loading materials on the three ships-mainly food, gunpowder, livestock, arrow branches and other materials.

Over the past few days, the North Korean spies have been spying outside Jingyi County. At first, Mo Ming and the others were a little nervous, thinking that Li Chao sent a large army to conquer.It is not surprising that they have this kind of thinking, because the Jeju House Wharf in the north of Jeju Island was "occupied" once last year, and the North Koreans lost hundreds of people and a large amount of livestock and food that time.Later, Li Yi's fleet plundered back and forth along the coast of Hamgyong Road in North Korea, which caused heavy losses to the North Koreans and a great loss of face.Therefore, after knowing that Jingyi County has trapped a thief, if the North Koreans mobilize all their troops to fight against them, then in Mo Ming's view, it is also a matter of course.

But the actual situation was obviously not like this. For some unknown reason, Li Chao's reaction to the Dong'an people occupying Jingyi County for ten days was simply to send some scouts over to watch.Maybe they wanted to "recover" Jingyi after the people from the east bank retreated on their own?Mo Ming shook her head, since the North Koreans are so cowardly, then I will do what they want for now.I only have more than a thousand soldiers on hand at present, if I plan to occupy Jingyi permanently, I will definitely not be able to spare enough troops to go to the coast of Daming to collect the population.If this is the case, it is better to abandon this place for the time being, and make new calculations when the reinforcements from the local area arrive in the future.

My next task is mainly to go to the coast of Daming to search for population, and the most convenient place at this time is naturally the Shandong Peninsula with a long coastline and many excellent ports.

"I'm going to build a foothold along the coast of Shandong, and then start to search for population. I've already decided on the general location, it's in the Deng and Lai areas, but I haven't decided on the specific foothold yet, so I'll have a look first and then talk about it." Mo Ming had a banquet in the county seat for the navy people who came to ship supplies and population, and said something.

Mo Ming's two full-time chefs prepared a rich lunch for everyone using the few local ingredients.Lunch is mainly beef, sea fish, and some mountain products and salmon brought by Li Yi and others from Heishui Port. Everyone has been wandering for a long time, and a few people ate up all the food on the table in a short while.

"It is appropriate to set up a point along the coast of Shandong." Li Yi first agreed with Mo Ming's opinion, "In fact, all we need is a port, which is convenient for our ships to land. After all, it is very troublesome to transfer things from small boats to big ships every time. Not to mention time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is also very unsafe and easy to be raided. Therefore, it is better for us to build a wharf at a certain seaport. Of course, the situation in Shandong is chaotic, with bandits and rebellious soldiers rampant, and we have to build a land at the same time. Go up to the fortress to defend the pier. However, the scale of the fortress should not be too large, as we don’t have enough troops, and if the city is too big, it may not be easy to defend.”

"This is natural. The perimeter of the city will not exceed 1000 meters. The design adopts the local standard polygonal bastion, masonry and cement structure, and more cannons. There are hundreds of soldiers who can skillfully use firearms in this kind of castle. There are endless passages by sea, and in places like the Far East, basically no one can capture them." After lunch, Mo Ming drank a glass of precious beer transported across the sea comfortably, and said slowly.Back then, Kang Mazi mobilized thousands of elite troops from across the country to attack Yaksa Castle, which was garrisoned by only 800 soldiers (less than half of whom were regular soldiers with guns).Later, I heard that the tsar's special envoy Golovin led 1500 musketeers to come for reinforcements. He immediately knelt down and decided to cede territory to negotiate peace with the Russians. It can be seen that the military technology of the Far East at this time has been completely inferior to that of the West.

Moreover, in the next year or so, the situation in Shandong was extremely chaotic.Various forces, such as Daming, Dashun, and the Qing court, you sing and I will appear on the stage. There are so many local forces in Shandong that they surrendered to Dashun first. The banner of "Zhongxing Ming Dynasty" was issued, and then after seeing that the Nanming court was even more unreliable, they slavishly flattered the Qing court one after another.There are countless officials who voted for Tartarism, and they really lost their integrity.

The Dengzhou Prefecture chosen by Mo Ming is located in the Jiaodong area. It was originally a prosperous place with dense population.However, since the end of Ming Dynasty, the Denglai area has been plagued by many disasters. First, there were years of famines and local uprisings, and then it was poisoned by Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng's rebellious army. Two months ago, it was looted by the Qing army again. The population of one million has already stopped June [-] stop, now the whole prefecture can have one-third of the population in its heyday is not easy.Dengzhou Penglai Port, which was once an important transshipment site for military assets in eastern Liaodong and a port connecting North Korea, was also severely damaged.

Therefore, it is appropriate to set up the base in the sparsely populated Terengganu.Especially in Weihai, which is a small fishing village at this time, and Ninghai Prefecture and other places, there are many excellent anchorages, but the ruling foundation of the Ming court here is quite weak, and it can even be said that it has basically been disintegrated.Except for Penglai County (that is, Dengzhou City), which is still somewhat popular as a prefecture, the rest of the places are like ghost towns.In particular, Ninghai Prefecture, which was breached by the Qing army on February 2 of the lunar calendar, was even more dilapidated.

Faced with such a situation, perhaps the people from the east bank will not be discovered by residents other than the local residents for a long time after they landed.Of course, even if it is discovered, it is nothing. Dengzhou originally had more than ten battalions of water and land with nearly [-] soldiers and horses destroyed in the Kong Youde Rebellion. Later, it was attacked by the Qing army. The local armed forces can be said to have disappeared.Now that less than two months have passed, it is only a ghost that there is any armed force in the local area.

"The stronghold is between Weihai and Yantai. I will decide which one to choose. But I tend to choose Yantai. After all, there is a guard in Weihai. Although it will not take too much effort to defeat them, but It’s always a trouble.” Mo Ming said clearly, “There are still [-] Koreans in Jingyi County, as well as a large amount of food, livestock and military resources. I plan to take them all to Shandong and build a pier there. But the construction The bastion is extremely expensive, and it is still a question of where the huge amount of building materials come from. I don’t know if there are earth kilns still in operation in the countryside of Dengzhou, but I think it is unlikely. Grandma and bear, I want to put Jingyi County was demolished, and the materials obtained were shipped to Shandong to build the stronghold. Forget it, let’s wait for the brick kiln in Heishui Port to be erected first, it seems that it will be difficult to build this fortress this year.”

"Let's take your time first." Li Yi said in relief, "First collect population and building materials around Shandong, and then start construction. Don't worry, we have more than 1000 well-equipped soldiers, and the local gentry armed Dare to provoke us. After this winter, we will definitely be able to build this bastion in the first half of next year. At that time, we will add some savage Jurchen, Ainu and Japanese recruited to garrison, and no one will dare to provoke us. We are."

After this battle of attacking Jingyi County in North Korea, no one will despise these rude and barbaric Sakhalin natives anymore.Let alone these hunter-born guys, the bow and arrow shooting skills alone have reached an extremely high level.For this reason, when the previous three ships returned to Heishui Port, Mo Ming specifically asked them to work harder after returning, trying to recruit more indigenous soldiers.These men are strong-willed and hard-working, and if they are taught military discipline, they will become a strong army.

After lunch, everyone rushed to the pier and began to direct the shipment of goods and people.

The three ships that came this time were all empty, so all the materials stored in the county just happened to be loaded onto the ship.After filling nearly 102 tons of grain, as well as a large amount of gunpowder and arrows into the cabin of the armed transport ship "Businessman", the remaining 1 Koreans in the city were loaded onto the expedition ship "Breaking Waves".However, there are about [-] cattle, horses and other livestock left in the city at this time. These are extremely precious resources and cannot be discarded lightly.Therefore, as a last resort, Mo Ming ordered Liu Zhong to lead the Eight Banners Army to stay here, while he led the brothers from the [-]nd Company of the Army and the [-]st Company of the Independent Field Artillery to go to the coastal areas of Shandong to fight in advance.After the location is determined to land, they and the livestock will be transported by boat one by one.

On May 1643, 5, three ships of the East Coast Republic arrived in Weihai Bay on the west side of Liugong Island, carrying 17 Koreans, more than 300 soldiers from the East Coast, and a large amount of food, gunpowder and other supplies.After observing the terrain with a telescope, Mo Ming found that Weihaiwei was surrounded by hills and surrounded by the sea on three sides; and there were many mountains and streams in the territory, so it was very convenient to get water. If some repairs were made, some farmland could be opened beside the city wall .Liugong Island on the east side of Weihai Bay has become a natural breakwater to keep out the wind and waves; and if a fort is built on the island, it can block the entire bay. With such excellent conditions, it is no wonder that the Beiyang Navy chose this place as a What about the home port?But the only worrying thing is that there is already a Weihai Weicheng here, and it shouldn't take too much effort to take them down, but it doesn't match the current principle of keeping a low profile.Forget it, let’s go to Yantai to have a look.

In the afternoon, the fleet arrived in Zhifu Bay.This place is very similar to Weihai Bay. The water depth in the bay is about ten meters, and large ships can be moored. The Kongtong Islands on the east side are lined up as a natural barrier, and it is indeed an excellent harbor.What's even better is that this place is extremely remote, especially the area near Zhifu Island, except for a few fishermen, no one can be seen at all.On the small hill on the south side of the bay, there is a beacon tower, so the locals call this place Yantai.

If the people on the east bank build a bastion military port here, no one can stop it at this time.When the wharf is completed, the bastion is completed, more than a thousand soldiers are stationed inside, and more than ten cannons are erected, even tens of thousands of troops can't attack it in a hurry.

"I've decided! I won't go to Weihai anymore, I'll choose this place as our foothold on the mainland." Mo Ming stood on the bridge and declared, "Now we're measuring the water depth, and the ship is going to enter the port and anchor. After berthing, the first The 102nd company immediately went ashore to set up a landing site, ready to take over personnel and supplies. The construction of the Yantai Fortress will start today!"

(End of this chapter)